Dear all (sorry for cross-posting),
We would like to draw your attention to session 18e for the Goldschmidt 2014 in Sacramento, California June 8-13. Please consider submitting an abstract and joining us for a lively interaction about life in ice. Abstract deadline is on the 8th of February. Details of the session are below and through the link: http://goldschmidt.info/2014/index
Life in ice - microbiology and biogeochemistry of the Earth's cryosphere
A significant but shrinking proportion of Earth is frozen. This cryosphere includes frozen environments derived from sources of freshwater (snow deposits, glacial ice, lake ice), salt water (sea ice, ice shelves, saline lakes) and soil (permafrost). Each type of ice presents different physical-chemical constraints to its microbial inhabitants, but many organisms survive long-term encasement in an ice matrix and, in some cases, have adapted to metabolize and even thrive within the ice. Evidence for their ability to influence the formation and decay of icy interfaces and to play important roles in the cycling of carbon and other elements within the cryosphere and the adjacent atmosphere, ocean and soils is increasing. Microbial habitation of the surface of ice formations decreases ice albedo and accelerates melt; microbially mediated gas exchanges between polar oceans, sea ice and atmospheres and the potential for methane production or release from a warming cryosphere underscore importance to global climate. The inhabitants of Earth's cryosphere also provide model systems for considering the evolution of life during Snowball Earth and possible analogs for life on other icy planets and moons. This session will bring together biologists, biogeochemists, glaciologists and astrobiologists to debate the most recent advances in understanding the habitation of ice on Earth -- past, present and possibly beyond.
Best wishes from the co-conveners,
Alex Anesio (University of Bristol, A.M.Anesio@bristol.ac.uk)
Jill Mikulki (University of Tennessee, jmikucki@utk.edu)
Jody Deming (University of Washington, jdeming@uw.edu)
